Today was a long day of traveling! We got up early, ate breakfast and said our goodbyes to some of the nicest hotel staff I've ever encountered! We had over a four hour drive winding us up and around the mountains and through the fields of eastern Greece. While we did see some sheep and goat herds, I was surprised that we didn't see more given that they are so well known for their cheeses. We saw a lot of fields with yellow flowers, which we were told were mustard fields. Just a couple of gas and bathroom break stops and we were back at the Athens airport. Our car rental was a little unique in that they just come and pick up your car from the airport departures lane, you don't drop it off at their lot. So it was very scary when we were walking into the airport and realized we had forgotten Kevin's suitcase in the trunk! He ran outside across a couple of lanes of traffic and caught them before they had driven off with it. It was a very close call, but luckily all was well.

Our flight was relatively quick, only about 45 minutes and uneventful. The Santorini airport is tiny, only one conveyor belt for luggage and a handful of rental car desks, so that was pretty easy to navigate. As we all know, Kevin is a champ at driving a manual car on hilly, narrow, potholed roads, and Santorini is no exception. Of course I navigated us the "scenic" route around the island, so we didn't get to see the other town, we were on the backside of the island where there really isn't anything to see, whoops! We found a parking spot and walked to our hotel. There is no driving in Oia, the town where we are staying, so you have to park on the backside of town and walk in. We were greeted with sparkling wine at reception and brought to our cave suite. It's a lovely room carved out of the mountain and finished in stucco and finished concrete. It's really unique! The view from the terrace is amazing! You can see the entire coast of Santorini, and several of the smaller islands off the caldera.

We got settled and went for a nice dinner at Roka, a Greek restaurant that is in a house that was built on the island in the 1920s. The food was good and pretty unique. My favorite was the sweet chili peppers stuffed with two kinds of Greek cheeses. On our walk back it started to rain and it's quite cold and gusty! The forecast for the next couple of days doesn't look good so keep your fingers crossed that the rain and wind let up for a bit so that we can enjoy what the island has to offer!